Monday, February 28, 2011

The man with 39 wives, 94 children and 33 grandchildren. Ziona Chana lives with all of them in a 100-room mansion His wives take it in turns to share his bed. It takes 30 whole chickens just to make dinner.

He is head of the world's biggest family - and says he is 'blessed' to have his 39 wives.

Ziona Chana also has 94 children, 14-daughters-in-law and 33 grandchildren.

They live in a 100-room, four storey house set amidst the hills of Baktwang village in the Indian state of Mizoram, where the wives sleep in giant communal dormitories.

The full Monty: The Ziona family in its entirety with all 181 members

You treat this place like a hotel: With 100 rooms the Ziona mansion is the biggest concrete structure in the hilly village of Baktawng

Mr Chana told the Sun: 'Today I feel like God's special child. He's given me so many people to look after. 'I consider myself a lucky man to be the husband of 39 women and head of the world's largest family.'

The family is organised with almost military discipline, with the oldest wife Zathiangi organising her fellow partners to perform household chores such as cleaning, washing and preparing meals.

One evening meal can see them pluck 30 chickens, peel 132lb of potatoes and boil up to 220lb of rice.

Coincidentally, Mr Chana is also head of a sect that allows members to take as many wives as he wants.

Feeling peckish? The senior ladies of the Chana family show what it takes just to make a meal

The wives and I: Mr Ziona Chana poses with his 39 wives at their home in Baktawang, Mizoram, India

He even married ten women in one year, when he was at his most prolific, and enjoys his own double bed while his wives have to make do with communal dormitories. He keeps the youngest women near to his bedroom with the older members of the family sleeping further away - and there is a rotation system for who visits Mr Chana's bedroom.

Rinkmini, one of Mr Chana's wives who is 35 years old, said: 'We stay around him as he is the most important person in the house. He is the most handsome person in the village. She says Mr Chana noticed her on a morning walk in the village 18 years ago and wrote her a letter asking for her hand in marriage.

Shared bedroom: A look inside the four-storey mansion, Chhuanthar Run - The House of the New Generation

Another of his wives, Huntharnghanki, said the entire family gets along well.The family system is reportedly based on 'mutual love and respect.' And Mr Chana, whose religious sect has 40,000 members, says he has not stopped looking for new wives.

'To expand my sect, I am willing to go even to the U.S. To marry,' he said. One of his sons insisted that Mr Chana, whose grandfather also had many wives, marries the poor women from the village so he can look after them.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

In the weightlessness of space a frozen pea will explode if it comes in contact with Pepsi.

The increased electricity used by modern appliance parts is causing a shift in the Earth's magnetic field. By the year 2327, the North Pole will be located in mid-Kansas, while the South Pole will be just off the coast of East Africa.

The idea for "tribbles" in "Star Trek" came from gerbils, since some gerbils are actually born pregnant.

Male rhesus monkeys often hang from tree branches by their amazing prehensile penises.

Johnny Plessey batted .331 for the Cleveland Spiders in 1891, even though he spent the entire season batting with a rolled-up, lacquered copy of the Toledo Post-Dispatch.

Smearing a small amount of dog feces on an insect bite will relieve the itching and swelling.

The Boeing 747 is capable of flying upside-down if it weren't for the fact that the wings would shear off when trying to roll it over.

The trucking company Elvis Presley worked at as a young man was owned by Frank Sinatra.

The only golf course on the island of Tonga has 15 holes, and there's no penalty if a monkey steals your golf ball.

Legislation passed during WWI making it illegal to say "gesundheit" to a sneezer was never repealed.

Manatees possess vocal chords which give them the ability to speak like humans, but don't do so because they have no ears with which to hear the sound.

SCUBA divers cannot pass gas at depths of 33 feet or below.

Catfish are the only animals that naturally have an ODD number of whiskers.

Replying more than 100 times to the same piece of spam e-mail will overwhelm the sender's system and interfere with their ability to send any more spam.

Polar bears can eat as many as 86 penguins in a single sitting.

The first McDonald's restaurant opened for business in 1952 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and featured the McHaggis sandwich.

The Air Force's F-117 fighter uses aerodynamics discovered during research into how bumblebees fly.

You *can* get blood from a stone, but only if contains at least 17 percent bauxite.

Silly Putty was "discovered" as the residue left behind after the first latex condoms were produced. It's not widely publicized for obvious reasons.

Approximately one-sixth of your life is spent on Wednesdays.

The skin needed for elbow transplants must be taken from the scrotum of a cadaver.

The sport of jai alai originated from a game played by Incan priests who held cats by their tails and swung at leather balls. The cats would instinctively grab at the ball with their claws, thus enabling players to catch them.

A cat's purr has the same romance-enhancing frequency as the voice of singer Barry White.

The typewriter was invented by Hungarian immigrant Qwert Yuiop, who left his "signature" on the keyboard.

The volume of water that the Giant Sequoia tree consumes in a 24-hour period contains enough suspended minerals to pave 17.3 feet of a 4-lane concrete freeway.

King Henry VIII slept with a gigantic axe.

Because printed materials are being replaced by CD-ROM, microfiche and the Internet, libraries that previously sank into their foundations under the weight of their books are now in danger of collapsing in extremely high winds.

In 1843, a Parisian street mime got stuck in his imaginary box and consequently died of starvation.

Touch-tone telephone keypads were originally planned to have buttons for Police and Fire Departments, but they were replaced with * and # when the project was cancelled in favor of developing the 911 system.

Human saliva has a boiling point three times that of regular water.

Calvin, of the "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip, was patterned after President Calvin Coolidge, who had a pet tiger as a boy.

Seven out of every ten hockey-playing Canadians will lose a tooth during a game. For Canadians who don't play hockey, that figure drops to five out of ten.

A dog's naked behind leaves absolutely no bacteria when pressed against carpet.

A team of University of Virginia researchers released a study promoting the practice of picking one's nose, claiming that the health benefits of keeping nasal passages free from infectious blockages far outweigh the negative social connotations.

Among items left behind at Osama bin Laden's headquarters in Afghanistan were 27 issues of Mad Magazine. Al Qaeda members have admitted that bin Laden is reportedly an avid reader.

Urine from male cape water buffaloes is so flammable that some tribes use it for lantern fuel.

At the first World Cup championship in Uruguay, 1930, the soccer balls were actually monkey skulls wrapped in paper and leather.

Every Labrador retriever dreams about bananas.

If you put a bee in a film canister for two hours, it will go blind and leave behind its weight in honey.

Due to the angle at which the optic nerve enters the brain, staring at a blue surface during sex greatly increases the intensity of orgasms.

Never hold your nose and cover your mouth when sneezing, as it can blow out your eyeballs.

Centuries ago, purchasing real estate often required having one or more limbs amputated in order to prevent the purchaser from running away to avoid repayment of the loan. Hence an expensive purchase was said to cost "an arm and a leg."

When Mahatma Gandhi died, an autopsy revealed five gold Krugerrands in his small intestine.

Aardvarks are allergic to radishes, but only during summer months.

Coca-Cola was the favored drink of Pharaoh Ramses. An inscription found in his tomb, when translated, was found to be almost identical to the recipe used today.

If you part your hair on the right side, you were born to be carnivorous. If you part it on the left, your physical and psychological make-up is that of a vegetarian.

When immersed in liquid, a dead sparrow will make a sound like a crying baby.

In WWII the US military planned to airdrop over France propaganda in the form of Playboy magazine, with coded messages hidden in the models' turn-ons and turn-offs. The plan was scrapped because of a staple shortage due to rationing of metal.

Although difficult, it's possible to start a fire by rapidly rubbing together two Cool Ranch Doritos.

Napoleon's favorite type of wood was knotty chestnut.

The world's smartest pig, owned by a mathematics teacher in Madison, WI, memorized the multiplication tables up to 12.

Due to the natural "momentum" of the ocean, saltwater fish cannot swim backwards.

In ancient Greece, children of wealthy families were dipped in olive oil at birth to keep them hairless throughout their lives.

It is nearly three miles farther to fly from Amarillo, Texas to Louisville, Kentucky than it is to return from Louisville to Amarillo.

The "nine lives" attributed to cats is probably due to their having nine primary whiskers.

The original inspiration for Barbie dolls comes from dolls developed by German propagandists in the late 1930s to impress young girls with the ideal notions of Aryan features. The proportions for Barbie were actually based on those of Eva Braun.

The Venezuelan brown bat can detect and dodge individual raindrops in mid-flight, arriving safely back at his cave completely dry.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Tiger-Stone is a Dutch paver laying machine that can produce brick roads. Paving bricks are put onto the angled plain. As the electric crawler moves forward along a sand base layer, all the stones are packed together by gravity.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Saturday, February 19, 2011

2011 World Cup will have new exciting features like UDRS and Super over’s in its folds. This is the latest in a series of changes to formats over the years.Did you know the first 3 World Cup events were played with 60-over innings? Did you know that World Cup was played with red balls till 1987?

Did you know 30-yard circle was first introduced in the 1983 World Cup?There are so many changes that have taken place over the years as cricket’s premier event kept marching ahead. Find out in this page everything about each World Cup in snippets.

1975 World Cup

No. of teams: 8

Winner: West Indies

Tournament duration: 15 days

Format: Two groups and top two in semi finals

Clothing: White clothing and red balls

Overs per inning: 60

Field restrictions: No

Biggest change in format: NA

Highest score: 334/4 by England against India in Group A

Lowest team score: 86 by Sri Lanka against West Indies in Group B

Unforgettable moment: Dennis Amiss making the first ever World Cup century when he scored 137 off just 147 balls. Another unforgettable moment was Sunil Gavaskar scoring 36 off 174 balls while batting out the 60 overs

1979 World Cup

Winner: West Indies

No. of teams: 8

Tournament duration: 15 days

Format: Two groups and top two in semi finals

Clothing: White clothing and red balls

Overs per inning: 60

Field restrictions: No

Biggest change in format: No change

Highest score: 286/9 by West Indies against England in the final

Lowest team score: 45 by Canada against England in Group A

Unforgettable moment: A great knock of 138 by Vivian Richards in the final at Lord's

1983 World Cup

Winner: India

No. of teams: 8

Tournament duration: 17 days

Format: Two groups and top two in semi finals

Clothing: White clothing and red balls

Overs per inning: 60

Field restrictions: 30-yard circle introduced in cricket for the first time. Minimum of 4 fielders inside it throughout the innings

Biggest change in format: Introduction of 30-yard circle

Highest score: 338/5 by Pakistan against Sri Lanka in Group A

Lowest team score: 136 by Sri Lanka against England in Group A

Unforgettable moment: India beating the tournament favourite West Indies in a dramatic final at Lord's

1987 World Cup

Winner: Australia

No. of teams: 8

Tournament duration: 31 days

Format: Two groups and top two in semi finals

Clothing: White clothing and red balls

Overs per inning: 50

Field restrictions: Yes. 30-yard circle

Biggest change in format: Reduction in number of overs from 60 to 50 plus introduction of neutral umpire concept

Highest score: 360/4 by West Indies against Sri Lanka in Group B

Lowest team score: 135 by Zimbabwe against India in Group A

Unforgettable moment: First hat-trick in World Cup history. The honours went to Chetan Sharma of India who removed Kiwi batsmen Ken Rutherford, Ian Smith and Chatfield in successive balls

1992 World Cup

Winner: Pakistan

No. of teams: 9

Tournament duration: 32 days

Format: Round robin. All teams played each other once

and top four went through to the semi finals

Clothing: Coloured clothing and white balls

Overs per inning: 50

Field restrictions: Only 2 fielders allowed outside 30-yard

circle in the first 15 overs

Biggest change in format: Day-night matches.

Coloured clothing and white balls

Highest score: 313/7 by Sri Lanka against Zimbabwe

Lowest team score: 74 by Pakistan against England

Unforgettable moment: South Africa rejoining mainstream cricket

after the end of apartheid

1996 World Cup

Winner: Sri Lanka

No. of teams: 12

Tournament duration: 33 days

Format: Two groups and top four in each group through to quarterfinals

Clothing: Coloured clothing

Overs per inning: 50

Field restrictions: 30-yard circle in the first 15 overs.

Only 2 fielders allowed outside of it

Biggest change in format: Quarterfinal stage introduced for the first time

Highest score: 398/5 by Sri Lanka against Kenya in Group A

Lowest team score: 93 by West Indies against Kenya in Group A

Unforgettable moment: Sri Lanka scoring over 100 runs in the first 15 overs in 3 matches enroute to winning their first World Cup plus Aravinda de Silva's back-to-back Man-of-the-match awards in the semi final and final. Add to this Kenya shocking West Indies at Poona after bundling out the Caribbean giants for the tournament's lowest total

1999 World Cup

Winner: Australia

No. of teams: 12

Tournament duration: 38 days

Format: 2 groups and top 3 from each group progressed to Super Six. the top 4 from Super Six made it to semi finals

Clothing: Coloured clothing

Overs per inning: 50

Field restrictions: 30-yard circle

Biggest single change in format: Introduction of Super Six

Highest score: 373/6 by India against Sri Lanka in Group A

Lowest team score: 68 by Scotland against West Indies in Group B

Unforgettable moment: Tied semi final match between Australia and South Africa, which allowed the Aussies to go through on better net run rate

2003 World Cup

Winner: Australia

No. of teams: 14

Tournament duration: 43 days

Format: 2 groups and top 3 from each group progressed to Super Six. the top 4 from Super Six made it to semi finals

Clothing: coloured clothing

Overs per inning: 50

Field restrictions: 30-yard circle for the first 15 overs

Biggest single change in format: Nothing notable

Highest score: 359/2 by Australia against India in the final

Lowest team score: 36 by Canada against Sri Lanka in Pool B

Unforgettable moment: First time cricket world cup event went to the African continent. Ricky Ponting's phenomenal 146 off just 121 balls in the final

2007 World Cup

Winner: Australia

No. of teams: 16

Tournament duration: 47 days

Format: 4 groups of 4 teams each. Top two from each group progress to super 8. The top 4 in Super eight progressed to semi finals

Clothing: coloured clothing

Overs per inning: 50

Field restrictions: Powerplay introduced for the

first time in World Cup cricket

Biggest change in format: Introduction of Super 8 and powerplay

Highest score: 377/6 by Australia against South Africa in Group A

Lowest team score: 77 by Ireland against Sri Lanka in Super Eight stage

Unforgettable moment: Bangladesh knocking India out in first round and Ireland knocking Pakistan out in the first round. Plus Gilchrist's unbelievable 149 off just 104 balls simply stands out as the greatest World Cup final inning by an individual

2011 World Cup

No. of teams: 14

Tournament duration: 41 days

Format: 2 Groups with 7 teams in each group. The top 4 in each group go through to the quarterfinals